• With lots to achieve between announcing his retirement and shuffling off, Pope Benedict had to find a solution for the archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh. The Catholic church, like nature, abhors a vacuum and a fix was necessary after the resignation, amid claims of inappropriate behaviour, of Cardinal Keith O'Brien. No time for gatherings and summits or any of that. But it may well have been noted that when Cardinal O'Brien triumphed in Stonewall's "bigot of the year" awards last year, the shortlist also featured the archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, who suggested that the MP David Cairns – himself a former Catholic priest – may have died prematurely because of his sexuality. Just the shortlist that time, but Benedict nevertheless considered Tartaglia as the man to replace O'Brien for the time being. Ever the healing pontiff, wasn't he.

• Fresh turbulence, meanwhile, afflicts the ascent of Kevin Hurley, Britain's most outspoken elected police commissioner. He may have made Lord Prescott look a mug on the Today programme, but before that, there was his slight against the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and Sir William Macpherson, who Hurley diagnosed as suffering from "postcolonial guilt". These matters tend not to go away. "I fear Kevin Hurley's comments could undermine the trust and confidence of large sections of the communities he is responsible for policing," said Doreen Lawrence. "His comments about my case are inaccurate. It is misguided to boil down the problem to a personal one between the family and the police." The result, an apology from him, channelled via the Epsom Guardian. "In making those arguments it was not my intention to cause distress to the Lawrence family." Never a dull moment with him.

• Mirror, mirror on the wall, which is the priciest of them all, we asked yesterday, on looking at the amount ministers have been spending taking pictures of themselves. Could it be the culture crowd? Pictures of new ministers including Jeremy Hunt in May 2010, and then of Maria Miller, cost £1,422. But no, for once again we look to the Gove-ites. The Department for Education spent £2,300 on pictures of ministers in May 2010 and another £1,248 after the reshuffle in September 2012 – a total of £3,548. Not a fortune, but quite a lot to splash out if you claim to be skint. And notable, perhaps, when set against responses from other government departments. The Business and Justice departments and the Home Office said pictures were taken by in-house staff, or were sourced from ministers' political party offices. But that doesn't have the same cachet, does it?

• Here comes the Wolf. For last week, Neil "Wolfman" Wallis, ex-News of the World and the People, was told he would not face charges as part of the phone-hacking investigations. Now he's a top turn on the media circuit, telling all, opening his heart, speaking of his ordeal, sharing his anguish. Those at this week's launch of the book After Leveson, heard his extraordinary account of heartbreak and despair. "It was horrendous. Scary." He was broken (almost but not quite) by a Scotland Yard that once sought his counsel. There were laments for the money lost; all of it engaging in the telling and certainly disturbing for media types who thought themselves protected from such indignities. But all bets are off these days.

• Finally, two options. Either there is mischief afoot, or we need to look again at what happened the last time Labour chose a leader, adding new and vital information to the pot. Recently we reported how the diligence of author Dominic Shelmerdine extracted from David Miliband a confession of his earliest ambition. "I wanted to be a bus conductor," said the former foreign secretary. Shelmerdine periodically publishes a book of these things. Seemed logical then, that he should turn to brother Ed, but that has been trickier. After many calls, however, the author got a steer from the Labour leader's office. A letter is on its way, an aide informed him. And it says? "Ed's original ambition was to become a bus conductor." Poor David. He's probably endured more than 40 years of this.